1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to eclones. More particularly, the present invention relates to an autonomous eclone that can represent a user and respond to a message when the user is unavailable.
2. Description of Prior Art
Relatively new forms of communication and expanding marketplaces have placed many demands on business professionals. Professionals normally have a multitude of tasks that must be accomplished including responding to email, answering telephone calls, participating in teleconferences, and participating in video-conferences. Additionally, professionals are often relied upon as resources by other employees and customers but are often unavailable because of the above described tasks.
As a consequence, other people wishing to reach professionals are often forced to leave voice-mail messages or send email messages. Unfortunately, voice-mail and email messages might not be attended to for a long time even if they are urgent and require immediate attention. Often such messages are routine and can be easily answered.
It is also common that two or more tasks need to be simultaneously accomplished. For example, business professionals frequently receive email messages while they are on the phone or voice-mail messages while they are participating in teleconferences. Currently, there is no way for a person to be able to simultaneously accomplish two or more of the tasks listed above.
There are services available that attempt to improve upon traditional voice-mail systems. These services attempt to automate voice-mail systems by including an electronic entity, or eclone, that decides where to forward a telephone call. Such attempts at creating an effective eclone are limited in that they cannot respond to a message autonomously.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved autonomous eclone that can respond to a message when the user is unavailable and overcomes the other limitations of the prior art described above.